{
 "slug": "look-cool-tension",
 "name": "Cool tension",
 "category": "look",
 "group": "Named looks",
 "media": [
  "image",
  "video"
 ],
 "checked": "2026-10-13",
 "effect": "Cool and drained: unease, focus, seriousness.",
 "use_when": "Thrillers, cybersecurity, health problem statements.",
 "phrase": "cool desaturated colour, blue-grey shadows, skin kept natural, firm contrast",
 "pitfalls": [
  {
   "text": "If the viewer notices the grade, it is too strong; dial it back about half when in doubt.",
   "evidence": "practitioner",
   "source": "Vidar Andersen via the Director Chair colour grading guide"
  }
 ],
 "per_model": [],
 "external_refs": [
  {
   "site": "shotdeck",
   "url": "https://shotdeck.com/",
   "what": "real film frames to search by framing and lens (paid, link only)"
  },
  {
   "site": "flim",
   "url": "https://flim.ai/",
   "what": "film and ad stills to search by text or image (free tier, link only)"
  }
 ],
 "licensed": [],
 "site_names": [],
 "related": [
  "look-bleach-bypass",
  "blue-hour"
 ],
 "rights": "own-work",
 "evidence": "film-craft",
 "source": {
  "url": null,
  "note": "Own synthesis in the Director Chair colour grading guide"
 },
 "body": "",
 "shown_with": null,
 "url": "https://directorchair.ai/look/look-cool-tension",
 "markdown": "https://directorchair.ai/look/look-cool-tension.md",
 "prompts": {
  "nano-banana-pro": "Cool desaturated colour, blue-grey shadows, skin kept natural, firm contrast. [your subject] in [your setting].",
  "nano-banana-2": "Cool desaturated colour, blue-grey shadows, skin kept natural, firm contrast. [your subject] in [your setting].",
  "gpt-image": "A photograph of [your subject] in [your setting].\nDetails: cool desaturated colour, blue-grey shadows, skin kept natural, firm contrast\nExclusions: no extra text, no watermark, no logo.",
  "seedream-5": "Cool desaturated colour, blue-grey shadows, skin kept natural, firm contrast. [your subject] in [your setting].",
  "seedance-2.5": "Global look: cool desaturated colour, blue-grey shadows, skin kept natural, firm contrast\nScene: [your subject] in [your setting].\nShot 1 (0:00 to 0:05): one continuous shot",
  "seedance-2.0": "Global look: cool desaturated colour, blue-grey shadows, skin kept natural, firm contrast\nScene: [your subject] in [your setting].\nShot 1: one continuous shot",
  "kling-3": "[your subject]. The scene is [your setting]. Cool desaturated colour, blue-grey shadows, skin kept natural, firm contrast.",
  "veo-3.1": "[your subject] in [your setting]. Framing and subject stay as in the start image. Cool desaturated colour, blue-grey shadows, skin kept natural, firm contrast."
 },
 "licence": {
  "code": "MIT",
  "text": "CC BY 4.0",
  "third_party": "Clips and card texts inside a \"licensed\" block belong to their makers and are shown with permission and credit."
 }
}